Zoiglhaus is a welcome addition to Portland’s Lents neighborhood. The spacious and family-friendly gathering place opened last fall and looks to be the start of some long-awaited retail and housing development in the area.

By Patty MamulaFor the Oregon Beer Growler

Finally, a craft brewery has arrived in the Lents neighborhood of Portland. Zoiglhaus Brewing Company, at Southeast 92nd Avenue and Ramona Street, is an oasis in a desert of family-friendly gathering places. The spacious, German-inspired pub opened September 2015, after more than four years of planning.

Of the many stories behind the brewery project, the one about its name seems the place to start. Zoigl is a variety of beer made in eastern Bavaria, which dates back to ancient times. The tradition is still practiced in the small towns of the Oberpfalz region. Locals share a communal brewery where they mash before taking them home to ferment. When the homebrewers of Oberpfalz put the Zoigl sign outside their house, it’s an invitation to come enjoy their beer. The sign is a six-pointed, blue-and-white star shaped from two triangles. The first symbolizes the brewing elements of fire, water and air. The second symbolizes the ingredients of malt, hops and water.

For co-owner and brewmaster Alan Taylor, the name Zoiglhaus was perfect. He said that when he and the other two owners met with the marketing representative to hammer out the concept of the brewery, they had three different ideas.

“We all came together behind the idea of the Zoigl and the name Zoiglhaus just followed. We liked the idea of a community brewery, of supporting the neighborhood, of sharing our brewhouse with other breweries, and of the traditional German heritage style of brewing.” The red-and-white logo features the traditional star.

Taylor’s interest in and love of Germany is deep and wide. As an undergraduate at Linfield College, he studied German and math and found time for homebrewing. He traveled to Germany numerous times for study and work, eventually combining his education and passion into German beermaking.

Taylor secured a brewing internship in Berlin at the Luisen-Brau in May of 1997. Competition for internships was fierce then, since there was only one main brewery, a handful of pubs and at least a dozen people vying for the spots. “I showed up week after week at the pub and finally wore the owner down,” he said.

In the fall, he began attending the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt fur Brauerei in Berlin, a brewing institute for professionals started in 1883 by the German brewing and malting industry. He successfully completed the intensive 10-month course and received his degree in 1998. After that, Taylor jumped back and forth between the states and Germany, finding plenty of work at breweries, including Widmer Brothers Brewing until 2011 when he started planning his own brewery.

Alan Taylor, co-owner and brewmaster at Zoiglhaus, shows off the new brewing equipment, which was custom designed for his German brewing expertise.

“The first hurdle was finding a location,” Taylor said. With backing from investor Nick Roberts, he looked at 50 or 60 different locations around town — on the west side, in St. Johns, in Southeast. It took two years to locate the building in Lents, which was owned by the Portland Development Commission. It was a good match. The PDC had been looking for a tenant for the 28,000-square-foot building, close to the Lents Town Center/Foster Road MAX Station, after a failed bakery left them with unpaid loans and a gaping hole in services for the proposed Lents Town Center.

From Taylor’s view, the building was perfect for a brewery, with nearly 7,000 square feet for a restaurant and 3,000-plus for the onsite brewery with a loading dock in back, a freight elevator to take the grain and other supplies to the full basement and the possibility of developing event space on the second floor.

But the brewery project slowed, and at that point Taylor “told Nick to stop paying me for a while.” He went looking for an in-between job — one that would keep him financially solvent while he moved his brewery project forward. That’s how he ended up as head brewer at PINTS Brewing Company in Old Town Portland. Taylor increased the beer production and business at PINTS almost overnight. “We went from 13 barrels a month when I first started to 106 in July,” he said.

In time, PINTS owner Chad Rennaker saw the opportunity in Lents and joined forces with Taylor and Roberts. He also bought nearby property, including the New Copper Penny nightclub, and plans to build a mix of affordable housing and retail on that site. Other property in the immediate area is also slated for development.

In another twist to a complicated business relationship, Taylor agreed to assist Rennaker with his brewery in Albuquerque, N. M. — the Ponderosa Brewing Company. Taylor trained the brewer there and oversees production, making monthly visits to the brewery. Until recently, he was back and forth between PINTS and Zoiglhaus. All the brewing was happening at PINTS because the 10-barrel brewhouse expected in September was delayed. Now that it’s arrived, Taylor is excited about its big brewing capabilities.

“The PINTS brewhouse, built in 1997, is not made to handle ‘big’ beers,” said Taylor. “The 3.5-barrel system works best for ESBs and lagers.”

The new equipment is from Newlands Systems in British Columbia, Canada, and custom designed to Taylor’s specifications. By the time this goes to print, the brewhouse will be operational. Even with all the shiny tanks and three extra fermenters for other operations, the brewhouse has room to grow. When it’s at capacity, they can produce 10,000 barrels annually. Of the extra fermenters onsite, one belongs to a founding member of The Oregon Public House, a nonprofit brewpub in North Portland, and the other two are for a startup brewery soon to find its home in Hood River.

Taylor plans to brew three or four days a week at Zoiglhaus, one or two days at PINTS and travel to Albuquerque, N.M. once a month. At Zoiglhaus, two other brewers will assist him. The tap list at Zoiglhaus currently has 10 beers, including a couple of IPAs and a red. The German beers include dunkelweizen, schwarzbier, hefeweissbier and a crisp kolsch. There aren’t plans for guest taps.

Even though Taylor has embraced modern conveniences in his brewing practices, choosing electricity instead of wood fires, and kettle whirlpools for cooling instead of coolships, he wants to brew in accordance with the German purity laws that says brewers can only use water, hops, malted barley and yeast — unless its top fermented and then they can use anything that’s maltable. “The whole idea here was to have German beer done right.”

The menu features several traditional German dishes, such as homemade sauerkraut and sausage, kaesespaetzle with layers of Swiss cheese and caramelized onion and jagerschnitzel, along with more traditional pub fare.

Does spent yeast constitute a water quality issue for Oregon streams, and a financial burden on the state’s craft breweries? A September 2014 beer blog post described how two Austin, Texas breweries faced a fee of $5000 for “improper yeast disposal.” The piece made this writer want to do a little investigation to understand whether Oregon’s brewers are in danger of also getting slapped with hefty fines.

To understand why yeast would be considered a pollutant, a very brief science lesson is in order. Yeast, along with cleaning water, spent mash and hops that remain after the brewing process is complete, is usually discharged into municipal wastewater systems. Note that in Oregon most spent grains and hops, along with the yeast, are usually sold or given to farmers for animal feed — it’s organic and very nutritious. And yeast is ‘harvested’ for reuse in many breweries. These practices limit a lot of waste discharge, but not all of it. So where does the science come in? Well, the federal Clean Water Act of 1972 regulates the discharge of pollutants to the nation’s waterways. More specifically in this case, it’s the discharge of organic materials that may contribute to biological oxygen demand, which can stimulate the growth of algae in streams, lakes and oceans. This, in turn, can lead to a decrease in dissolved oxygen, which is bad for fish and other aquatic life. High concentrations of total suspended solids that could come from breweries pose another threat to waterways and wildlife. Acidity, expressed as pH, is an additional concern. OK, enough of the science lesson.

To determine whether Oregon breweries are in danger of being fined or required to pay special fees for their discharges, I did some digging and got some of my questions answered. First, Steve Schnurbusch of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) told me that there are no requirements specific to yeast effluents, nor to brewery wastewater discharges in general. He spoke of ‘loading,’ a measure of the total amounts of organic matter discharged to streams in relation to the size of any particular wastewater treatment plant from a brewery and other industrial sources. In other words, if a large brewery is located in a small community with a small treatment plant, then there could be a problem. Schnurbusch noted that the DEQ mainly regulates end-of-pipe discharges to receiving waters — for instance, from treatment plants, rather than discharges from breweries to municipal sewer systems. He suggested I should speak to city officials who operate those treatment plants.

This suggestion led me to the City of Salem, where Nitin Joshi of Salem Environmental Services reiterated some of what I had learned from the DEQ representative. The City of Salem does not have regulations specific to yeast, or even to breweries. Salem breweries are considered commercial, rather than industrial, users. Unless a particular plant, or brewery in our case, discharges more than 25,000 gallons per day, then there are no permits required. Finally, I decided to speak to a brewer to get that perspective.

Santiam Brewing’s head brewer, Jerome Goodrow, was kind enough to talk to me as he was in the process of cleaning tanks after a brew and discharging the rinse water. Like most breweries, the spent grain and hops are used for farm animal feed, and some of the yeast is harvested. He noted that the cleaning solution, or disinfectant, is quite acidic, although it’s neutralized by use of a caustic solution, thereby creating a final effluent that is nearly pH neutral. Goodrow reiterated that they do not discharge enough volume into the city’s sewer system to qualify as an industrial customer, nor do any of the other Salem breweries. There are no issues specific to yeast discharge at Santiam.

So, the bottom line based on my limited research: yeast discharge to sewer systems does not seem to be an issue in Oregon. I’m confident that Oregon’s craft brewers are attuned to the potential and are very conscientious about recycling and limiting their discharge of both wastewater and organic materials. Further investigation may find a very large brewery in a very small community where discharge could create problems with biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids or pH conditions in the receiving waters, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at this point.

In April 2015, conservation group Oregon Wild announced the formation of The Oregon Brewshed® Alliance. The coalition of breweries and more advocates for the protection of forests and watersheds. Featured here, left to right, are Christian Ettinger of Hopworks, Colin Rath, co-founder of Migration and member of Oregon Wild’s Board of Directors, Julia Person, sustainability manager at Widmer, and Marielle Cowdin, outreach and marketing coordinator from Oregon Wild. Photo by Emma Browne

By Anthony St. ClairFor the Oregon Beer Growler

Brewers know that great beer begins with clean water. Oregon craft beer is especially connected to the Northwest’s land and waterways, and that’s why in April 2015, conservation group Oregon Wild announced the formation of The Oregon Brewshed® Alliance. The coalition of breweries, other craft beer organizations and conservationists advocates for the protection of forests and watersheds.

Launching with eight partners from the craft beer industry, in less than a year there are now 21 partners, including 7 Devils Brewing Co. in Coos Bay, C-BIG (Craft Beverage Industry Group), Crosby Hop Farm in Woodburn, Fort George Brewery in Astoria, GoodLife Brewing in Bend, the brewpub chain McMenamins, Standing Stone Brewing Company in Ashland and multiple other breweries in Eugene and Portland.

“Conservationists and breweries joining forces for clean water might be a bit unconventional, but the partnership is really a natural fit,” says Marielle Cowdin, outreach and marketing coordinator for Oregon Wild. “Keeping our drinking watersheds clean and protected is essential for living. And it’s just as essential for keeping our craft brewing industry, something that has so defined our state’s culture, alive and thriving.”

Brewshed® partners and Oregon Wild also realized they had an opportunity to help the public understand the importance of clean water for brewing. “Many craft beer drinkers don't realize how significant water is for the process,” says Cowdin. “Two-thirds of Oregonians get their tap water from our state's lakes, streams and rivers. Since water is a product of the land that it flows through, our cleanest and best-tasting water flows through unspoiled public forest lands, with healthy forests acting as a natural filtration systems.”

Oregon Wild (formerly the Oregon Natural Resources Council or ONRC) began in 1974. Their conservation efforts have protected 1.7 million acres of wilderness, 95,000 acres of forests, and 1,800 miles of water protected by the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The foundation of the Brewshed® was laid in 2009 when Oregon Wild partnered with Widmer Brothers Brewing to protect Portland's Bull Run Watershed. “The partnership sparked plans for a larger initiative, given the intimate connection between Oregon's thriving craft brewing scene and our public wildlands.”

Partners collaborate on various outreach events, such as pint nights, happy hours, special brews, Brewshed® hikes and fundraisers that support Oregon Wild's forest and watershed conservation work. Eugene’s Claim 52 Brewing considers conservation efforts a priority and works with various nonprofits on environmental stewardship. “From inception, Claim 52 has been proud to credit the McKenzie River for the flavor profile of our signature beer, the kolsch,” says co-founder/owner Mercy McDonald. “The river that runs in our backyard is vital and needs our care and protection to keep it pure. All of us have a role and stake in that outcome.”

Claim 52 hosts events for Oregon Wild throughout the year and contributes to raffles to help with fundraising. Last year, Claim 52 also bottled a specialty beer, Scrivener’s Sour, and donated a portion of the proceeds to Oregon Wild. McMenamins provides similar support. This year, while celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hammerhead, McMenamins donated $1 for every pint of the pale ale sold in Oregon Jan. 30-31. The brewpub chain is also donating event space for the Brewshed® Brewfest, which is set to take place Wednesday, May 18 at the Kennedy School in Portland. The inaugural event will feature beers from Brewshed® partners and guests can vote for their favorite beers.

“The amazing beers our Brewshed® partners will be pouring will showcase Oregon water, but we'll be incorporating information about Oregon watersheds and water conservation into our program for the evening, with speakers from Oregon Wild and other Alliance members,” explains Cowdin. “Fest attendees will get to know about watersheds beyond Portland and get to taste beer from across the state. Overall, this first annual Oregon Brewshed® Brewfest will be a celebration of Oregon beer and the Oregon water that helps it stand apart.”

In 2015, partners held 12 events to raise awareness and support, including an Earth Day fundraiser, a Community Tap Month, a hike along the Salmon River and an environmental speaker series. Events in 2016 have included a fundraising campaign called Weekend for Water in partnership with the Oregon Environmental Council, Base Camp Brewing Company’s Collabofest presented by #PDXNOW, and February’s KLCC Microbrew Festival in Eugene, where the Alliance sponsored the water stations.

“Moving forward, we hope to continue growth with new partner breweries and others in the brewing community that care about clean water across the state,” says Cowdin. “As the Oregon Brewshed® Alliance builds new partnerships, our voice for Oregon watersheds becomes stronger, and eventually, the Alliance could be seen as a model for craft brewing and water conservation nationwide.”

For brewers such as Mercy McDonald, the need for partnership is simple. “Clean water is often taken for granted, and that’s where quality beer starts.”

The biggest sustainability effort Deschutes undertakes is the restoration of billions of water annually to the eponymous river, which is just a short walk from the brewery. Photo by Dustin Gouker

By Dustin GoukerFor the Oregon Beer Growler

A beer drinker doesn’t have to look far to see Deschutes Brewery’s connection to Oregon’s natural resources and the environment: It’s on almost every label the Bend-based company makes, from Mirror Pond Pale Ale to Black Butte Porter.

But its commitment to the environment goes far beyond some artfully done bottles. The most recent example came just a few months ago when Deschutes won the 2015 Oregon Sustainability Award in the Business category, presented at the Northwest Environmental Conference & Tradeshow in Portland. The state-awarded honor intends to “promote and advance the inclusion of sustainable practices in government and the private sector.”

Serena Dietrich, the sustainability project manager at Deschutes, says being mindful of the environment is one of the core values for the brewery. “It is embedded into our culture,” Dietrich says. “From the beginning, our founder Gary Fish has been about doing things right, no matter how hard it may be at the time.”

Of course, being environmentally sensitive was likely much easier back in 1988 — when Deschutes was founded and obviously much smaller — than today, when it ranks as one of the largest breweries in the country.

The biggest sustainability effort Deschutes undertakes is the restoration of a billion gallons of water annually to the eponymous Deschutes River, which is just a short walk from the brewery. Working with the Deschutes River Conservancy (DRC) since 2012, the brewery makes a donation to the organization’s water leasing program, which pays farmers to lease their irrigation water and legally protect that water.

Why is that necessary, and what’s that mean for the river?

“In the spring and summer, water flows are greatly decreased in the river due to irrigation withdrawals. By increasing flows in the Deschutes River through the leasing program, fish habitat is revitalized and water quality is improved,” said Dietrich, who also noted that the water restoration also enhances ecosystems for plants and other animals.

The Deschutes Brewery partnership marks the largest private donation made to the DRC to date. The one billion gallon donation also equates to 14 times more water than the brewery and all of its suppliers use to make beer each year. That includes Deschutes’ pubs and everyone in the brewery’s supply chain (hop and grain growers), according to the DRC website.

The work Deschutes does with the DRC is just part of the company’s sustainability efforts, though. There is, of course, the fact that Deschutes has a sustainability project manager in Dietrich. There is also a sustainability committee that features employees from throughout the company, Dietrich says.

Other environmentally-minded efforts at Deschutes include:— Deschutes attempts to recycle nearly everything it can, from packaging material to kegs.— About 70 percent of the glass used to make Deschutes’ bottles comes from recycled bottles, which reduces the amount of energy required to make new ones.— Deschutes pays a company to take its “high-strength beer waste,” which also happens to be rich in nutrients. That waste is used to fertilize farms.

Deschutes also endeavors to put the ingredients it uses to make beer to good use, once they’ve gone through the brewing process. Spent grain and hops are combined and sold as cow feed throughout Oregon, which eliminates processing and reduces waste while providing healthy food for cattle.

Some of that effort is tangible in the Bend brewpub, which has had a working relationship with the Borlen Cattle Company since 1995. The company picks up spent grain and hops for feed and, in exchange, the pub buys beef from Borlen for use in its burgers.

Deschutes certainly puts a lot of effort into its environmental practices to keep Central Oregon’s beauty intact for future generations. But Dietrich says the current sustainability efforts are just part of a work in progress.

“Even with all the effort, we continue to learn, assess and grow with our surroundings,” Dietrich says. “Keeping a focus on preserving our environment and community has always been a factor.”

Pushing the limits and finding new ways to tackle big problems is what drives many a passionate homebrewer. In the Pacific Northwest, a lot of innovation also revolves around the hop. Brewing huge IPAs can test our equipment and general knowledge about yeast. For instance, once you have that 1.095 starting gravity, getting the yeast to perform can be a challenge. Knowing how to approach common problems when making double IPAs will help you avoid a bad final product and possibly even create a great one.

Brewing Big IPAsThere are a few things to remember when crafting your own version of these big brews. As the name implies, you want to double everything: hops, malts and even yeast. If you’ve never made this style, you can simply start by doubling all of the ingredients in your favorite Northwest IPA recipe. Make sure you have enough grain or malt extract to hit a starting gravity of at least 1.065. Any starting gravity above 1.085 is considered “out of style.” Feel free to experiment. The mash will require a bit more water than normal to ensure a good extraction, so get a boil kettle that’s large enough to handle the extra volume.When using extract, don’t exceed approximately 10 pounds for a 5-gallon batch. Non-fermentable sugars in the extract will add too much sweetness to the finished product. To make up any extra gravity, there’s no harm in using a small amount of sugar. This technique can also be used if you don’t quite hit the numbers you’re going for when brewing all grain. Add the sugar during the last five minutes of the boil to avoid caramelizing and stir frequently so that it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the pot and scorch. Due to the extra volume, boil for 90 minutes. That also provides 30 more minutes for hop additions. When timing this out, remember that anything incorporated in the first 45 minutes will significantly increase the bitterness of the beer.

Finessing the YeastCome yeast-pitching time, be sure you’re using a strain that will be able to tolerate the higher alcohol content you’re shooting for. This information should be available at your local homebrew supply shop. Additionally, it’s advisable to use two packets of yeast. The average yeast pitch has about 100 billion cells. According to yeast companies, this is sufficient for a 5-gallon batch with a starting gravity of 1.050, however, anything below 1.060 should lead to good fermentation.The biggest problem with brewing higher-gravity beers is the yeast not doing its job. Make sure you help create a wort that’s the perfect, cozy home for those little yeasties to thrive and get to work. After your boil is complete, chill it quickly by using an ice bath or a chiller to avoid the production of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a common off-flavor that can resemble the taste of cooked vegetables. It’s also important to ensure the yeast is the same temperature as the wort. Too much of a difference will cause the yeast cells to rupture. Take your yeast out of the refrigerator and allow it to warm up to room temperature. Before pitching, introduce oxygen to the wort to help get the yeast started.

Shaking the fermenter is adequate, but if you’re feeling adventurous, you can purchase an oxygenation assembly system that injects oxygen into the wort as it travels into the fermenter. You’ll also need a bottle of oxygen, which can be found at some hardware stores. Take care to not go overboard when adding oxygen.Stubborn YeastEven after giving the yeast a fighting chance, it won’t always perform. In the event of stuck fermentation, when the yeast has gone dormant, there are still a few options. Adding more yeast to the fermenter is the quickest and easiest fix. However, the best time to do this would be before the wort has fermented at all because a later introduction could create off-flavors. If fermentation has gotten underway and then come to a halt, transfer the beer from the primary fermenter to a secondary. This will rouse some of the yeast and get the beer away from the dead yeast and protein.Don’t focus solely on the activity in the air lock because many things can make it bubble. The only way to know whether fermenting has stopped prematurely or finished the way you’d planned is by taking a gravity reading. Even if you didn’t hit the numbers you’d hoped, the test of the tongue is, perhaps, most important. Only you can decided if your method needs adjustment or if you’re on the way to brewing an award-winning double IPA.